On the day that was started with me becoming an uncle, with Harry Joseph Desborough Brothers entering the world on Saturday morning, the Cobblers produced yet another mix of ineptitude and fight that Harry will have to get used to should he rightfully choose the claret and white as his football colours.
After last week’s disparaging goalless treat against Grimsby Town at Sixfields it was back to the home of football to take on a Crewe side in a very similar and underachieving position to ourselves. Dario Gradi is back in charge and that meant that we expected exactly what we got – more of a footballing encounter. Unfortunately for us, we couldn’t deal with the style of the Alex in the opening 45 minutes and were two down by the interval.
It could have been more as well...Calvin Zola had numerous chances even before Clayton Donaldson had giving the visitors an early lead, as he raced worryingly away from the Cobblers back line to score after fourteen minutes.
The Cobblers’ best chance fell to Adebayo Akinfenwa as he followed up from a flick on to force Steve Phillips into a good stop. But it was 2-0 before the break as Zola broke and sent in a dangerous cross that John Johnson could only turn into his own goal and it was yet another uphill battle ahead in the second half.
Thankfully, Bayo wasn’t done and he once again proved himself to be our main threat in front of goal as he rejuvenated his side and earned us a point. With six minutes gone in the second half, Luke Guttridge found the big man who turned his man and fired home to hand us a massive lifeline.
There were chances at both ends before Bayo made it 2-2, curling home an unstoppable finish past Phillips and there was still time to complete the turn around with over twenty minutes still to play. Substitute Gary Mulligan almost got the winner but for a good save from Phillips whilst at the other end Chris Dunn denied Donaldson a second.
Loanee Josh Walker, making his debut, so nearly made it a dream start as he came close to a winner in the dying seconds but Phillips was again equal to the shot.
So another point it was and we can only be thankful that once again we pulled it out of the bag - the fourth recovery this season from a two goal deficit. We so badly need a good ninety minutes though to really get ourselves going. There’s a chance away from Sixfields this Tuesday as we travel to Aldershot, who got an excellent point at Notts County this weekend so it won’t be easy.
Then it’s onwards to the FA Cup tie with Southampton next Saturday and defending certainly needs to be stepped up by that one!
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